In the political annals of the Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the first notorious public episodes involving Mojtaba Khamenei, the man just named as the country’s new supreme leader, occurred during the 2005 presidential election.

伊朗伊斯兰共和国政治史册记载的诸多臭名昭著的公开事件中，最早的一桩涉及新任最高领袖穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊的事件，发生在2005年总统大选期间。

After a dark-horse candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, surged abruptly into a runoff and eventual victory, the reformist politician who unexpectedly lost wrote an open letter to the supreme leader accusing his son Mojtaba of manipulating the vote.

当时，黑马候选人马哈茂德·艾哈迈迪-内贾德异军突起，进入了决选，并最终获胜。那位意外落败的改革派政治人士随后给最高领袖写了一封公开信，指责其子穆杰塔巴操纵选票。

“You are well aware that the unwise intervention of the relatives and aides of some religious and political officials in the past has had a very negative consequence,” the opposition candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, wrote in the letter, published by two newspapers that were forced to suspend publication afterward.

“您很清楚，过去某些宗教和政治官员的亲属及助手不明智地干预政务，已经造成了极其负面的后果，”反对派候选人迈赫迪·卡鲁比在信中写道。该信由两家报纸刊发，它们随后被强令停刊。

Ever since, Mr. Khamenei has had the reputation of operating in the shadows, using the power of his father’s office to manipulate events in the Islamic republic in favor of the hard-line faction.

自此以后，穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊便背负了在影子中运作的名声，利用其父的权力来操纵伊斯兰共和国的事务，使其向强硬派阵营倾斜。

That headquarters of the supreme leader, which he is now inheriting from his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has always played an outsize role in the country’s affairs.

他目前从父亲阿亚图拉阿里·哈梅内伊手中继承的最高领袖办事机构，在该国事务中一直发挥着超乎寻常的作用。

周一在德黑兰，伊朗民众手持穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊及其父亲的海报，表达对新任最高领袖的支持。

In the 37 years that the elder Mr. Khamenei ruled before being killed in an American and Israeli attack, he transformed the office from a traditional religious affairs bureau with a political cast into a national security juggernaut with oversight of the military, intelligence, the economy, foreign affairs and, of course, the clergy.

在遭美以袭击身亡前，老哈梅内伊的37年执政将该机构从一个带有政治色彩的传统宗教事务局，转型为一个掌控军事、情报、经济、外交以及宗教界的国家安全巨无霸。

“Under Khamenei, it became a complete security, political and economic state within a state,” said Saeid Golkar, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee who coauthored a report last January about the transformation.

“在哈梅内伊治下，它变成了一个集安全、政治和经济于一体的完整的‘国中之国’，”田纳西大学政治学教授赛义德·戈尔卡表示，他于去年1月参与撰写了一份关于这一转型的报告。

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, the second of four sons, was already considered the “mini supreme leader” advising his father on the office’s web of operations, Mr. Golkar added. His three brothers also worked there in advisory roles.

戈尔卡补充道，56岁的穆杰塔巴是四个儿子中的次子，此前已被视为“迷你最高领袖”，负责就该办事机构复杂的运作网络向其父提供建议。他的三个兄弟也在那里担任顾问职务。

President Trump has said that his assault on Iran should give him a role in picking the country’s next leader. Asked about the younger Mr. Khamenei at a news conference on Monday, Mr. Trump said, “We think it’s going to lead to more of the same problems for the country, so I was disappointed.” Analysts considered the choice a sign of the regime’s seeking continuity amid the tumult of the war.

特朗普总统曾表示，他对伊朗的打击应让他有权参与挑选该国的下一任领导人。在周一的新闻发布会上被问及小哈梅内伊时，特朗普说：“我们认为这会导致这个国家面临更多同样的问题，所以我感到很失望。”分析人士认为，这一选择标志着该政权在战争动荡中寻求连续性。

The name of the office is Bayt-e Rahbari in Farsi, meaning the House of the Supreme Leader, often known simply as the Bayt.

该办事机构的波斯语名称是Bayt-e Rahbari，意为“最高领袖府”，通常简称为“贝特”(Bayt)。

In Shiite Islam, tradition dictates that an ayatollah should establish a bayt to interact with followers on religious questions and to organize matters like charity. A son is often delegated to run it.

依据什叶派伊斯兰教传统，阿亚图拉应建立一个“贝特”，以便与信徒沟通宗教问题并组织慈善等事务。通常会委派一名儿子来负责管理。

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, added a political element to that model. When the ayatollah began fading before his death in 1989, his son Ahmad Khomeini became his gatekeeper. That prompted considerable grumbling about excessive interference by the Bayt, especially after Ahmad was accused of torpedoing as too liberal the main candidate expected to succeed Ayatollah Khomeini.

伊斯兰革命创始人阿亚图拉鲁霍拉·霍梅尼为这一模式增添了政治色彩。当霍梅尼在1989年去世前身体每况愈下时，其子艾哈迈德·霍梅尼成为了他的“守门人”。这引发了关于贝特过度干预的强烈不满，尤其是艾哈迈德被指控排挤了一位被认为过于自由派的领袖继承人。

1979年，阿亚图拉·鲁霍拉·霍梅尼（中）与其子艾哈迈德·霍梅尼（左一）结束在法国的流亡，回到德黑兰。

The secretive Bayt that the next leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, established was on a different order of magnitude. While the previous Bayt had dozens of employees, said Mr. Golkar, 4,000 people now work there, and 40,000 more are affiliated throughout the government.

继任领袖哈梅内伊建立的这个神秘的贝特，其规模完全不可同日而语。戈尔卡表示，之前的贝特只有数十名雇员，而现在那里有4000人，另外在政府各部门还有4万名下属人员。

Ayatollah Khamenei created mirror offices for every government ministry, appointing powerful deputies for foreign affairs, education, cultural affairs and other departments who were all given a mandate to ensure that government policy conformed to his wishes. Other teams steer military and intelligence matters. Mr. Trump imposed sanctions on the supreme leader’s office in 2019.

哈梅内伊为每一个政府部委都设立了镜像办公室，任命掌握重权的副手负责外交、教育、文化等部门，授权他们确保政府政策符合其意志。另有团队操控军事和情报事务。特朗普曾于2019年对最高领袖办公室实施制裁。

Lacking venerable religious credentials or popular support when he became supreme leader in 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei set about consolidating his power through the security services and his Bayt.

1989年接任最高领袖时，由于缺乏宗教资历或民意支持，哈梅内伊着手通过安全部门和他的贝特来巩固权力。

Given his reliance on the security services to crack down on increasingly frequent waves of dissent, including fatally shooting thousands of street protesters months ago, Ayatollah Khamenei had surrounded himself with the military commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

鉴于他依赖安全部门镇压日益频繁的反抗浪潮（包括数月前射杀数千名街头抗议者），哈梅内伊身边一直环绕着伊斯兰革命卫队的指挥官。

The religious weight of the office declined further with the younger Mr. Khamenei’s appointment, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. The son is a mid-ranking cleric, even if official statements immediately started referring to him as an “ayatollah.”

华盛顿保卫民主基金会高级研究员贝南·本·塔勒布卢表示，随着小哈梅内伊的任命，该职位的宗教分量进一步下降。尽管官方声明立即开始称其为“阿亚图拉”，但这位儿子其实只是名中层神职人员。

“Neither Khamenei was religiously qualified for the position, and it is almost certain that the new supreme leader will emulate his father and cultivate security ties,” said Mr. Taleblu.

“两位哈梅内伊在宗教层面上都不具备担任该职位的资格。几乎可以肯定，新任最高领袖将效仿其父，继续经营他与安全部门的关系，”塔勒布卢说。

The son is considered even more entwined with the Guards, particularly since he vetted the appointments of the latest generation of commanders and his history with them goes back to his teenage years, when he served in a noncombat role toward the end of the Iran-Iraq war, said Mr. Golkar.

戈尔卡指出，这位儿子被认为与革命卫队的关系更加盘根错节，特别是考虑到他曾负责审核最新一代将领的任命，且他与卫队的渊源可追溯到青少年时期——在两伊战争末期，他曾在其中担任非战斗职务。

Mojtaba Khamenei, who was 22 when his father took over as supreme leader, matured within the Bayt. Throughout those years, the regime’s authoritarian bent has increasingly overshadowed the theocracy that first emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊在父亲接掌最高权力时年仅22岁，他在贝特内部逐渐成熟。在这些年里，该政权的威权倾向渐渐压过1979年伊斯兰革命产生的神权体制。

“Iran has already moved from a theocratic regime to the theocratic security system under Khamenei, and now it is moving toward a more complete security state under Mojtaba,” said Mr. Golkar.

“在哈梅内伊治下，伊朗已经从神权政体转变为神权安全体系；而现在，在穆杰塔巴治下，它正向一个更彻底的安全国家演变，”戈尔卡说。